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U-20 analysis

Thoughts & analysis: Nsien names his roster for U-20 World Cup qualifying

Yet another important tournament for U.S. Soccer is taking place this summer, as the U-20 team will participate in its World Cup qualifying tournament in Mexico. ASN's Brian Sciaretta breaks down the roster for Michael Nsien's team
BY Brian Sciaretta Posted
July 14, 2024
7:55 PM

ON FRIDAY, UNITED STATES U-20 men’s national team head coach Michael Nsien announced his 21-player roster for the upcoming CONCACAF U-20 World Cup qualifying tournament in Mexico. The U.S. U-20 team has won the last three editions of the tournament and will be looking to qualify for its sixth straight World Cup.

The U.S. team is the top seeded team in the tournament and was drawn into Group A. It’s schedule in the group stage is as follows:

  • USA vs. Jamaica: Friday, July 19. 10pm EST
  • USA vs. Cuba: Monday, July 22. 10pm EST
  • USA vs. Costa Rica. Thursday, July 25. 10pm EST

Here is the roster along with thoughts on the team.

U.S. U-20 World Cup Qualifying Roster

(Club, hometown)

GOALKEEPERS (3): Adam Beaudry (Colorado Rapids; Castle Pines, Colo.), Julian Eyestone (Brentford FC/ENG; Dallas, Texas), Duran Ferree (Orange County SC; San Diego, Calif.)

DEFENDERS (6): Luca Bambino (Los Angeles FC; Saugus, Calif.), Noah Cobb (Atlanta United FC; Chattanooga, Tenn.), Aiden Harangi (Eintracht Frankfurt/GER; Reston, Va.), Stuart Hawkins (Seattle Sounders FC; Fox Island, Wash.), Ethan Kohler (Werder Bremen/GER; Campbell, Calif.), Nolan Norris (FC Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas)

MIDFIELDERS (6): Taha Habroune (Columbus Crew; Columbus, Ohio), Cruz Medina (San Jose Earthquakes; San Francisco, Calif.), Sergio Oregel Jr. (Chicago Fire FC; Chicago, Ill.), Brooklyn Raines (Houston Dynamo FC; Chicago, Ill.), Pedro Soma (UE Cornella/ESP; Coconut Creek, Fla.), Niko Tsakiris (San Jose Earthquakes; Saratoga, Calif.)

FORWARDS (6): Nimfasha Berchimas (Charlotte FC; High Point, N.C.), Keyrol Figueroa (Liverpool/ENG; Warrington, England), Zavier Gozo (Real Salt Lake; Eagle Mountain, Utah), Ruben Ramos Jr (LA Galaxy; La Puente, Calif.), David Vazquez (Philadelphia Union; Los Angeles, Calif.), Marcos Zambrano (Vitoria Guimaraes/POR; Parkland, Fla.)

 

Young team

 

This 21 player roster is very young by U.S. U-20 standards. The cutoff date is players born after January 1, 2005. In that aspect, the 2005-birth year should be the leaders of this group but it is not.

  • 2005 Birth Year: 7 players
  • 2006 Birth Year: 11 players
  • 2007 Birth Year: 2 players
  • 2008 Birth Year: 1 player

 

This is quite unusual for the oldest birth year in a U-20 cycle to not make up a majority of the team. Instead, it makes up just 33%. It’s also not an issue that a number of these U-20 players are instead with the USMNT or Olympic team. Only Benja Cremaschi (a 2005) is with another U.S. team as he is with the Olympic team instead.

In an interview with ASN in May, Nsien indicated that the 2006-born players are a big part of the plans.

“I would say the overall depth, it's not a massive age group if you just consider the 2005s,” Nsien said in the interview. “But you add the 2006s to the equation, which we're very excited about, I think it opens up the pool tremendously.”

Also, at this early stage of the U-20 cycle (the first year of a two-year cycle), Nsien is bringing three players into the team who are playing up a cycle, including Nimfasha Berchimas who, as a 2008-born player, is also eligible for the current U-17 cycle as well (Zavier Gozo and Ruben Ramos Jr. made it as 2007-born players).

With the team trending that young, it will be interesting to gauge the team’s maturity, mental strength, and confidence heading into a tricky tournament in a tough environment in Mexico.

 

Big test for MLS Next Pro

 

With recent U-20 team, the trend has been an ever-increasing number of players who have first-team minutes at either the MLS or European levels. Even in the first year of a U-20 cycle, most of the players were at least getting consistent substitute minutes.

Instead, this group finds far more players at MLS Next Pro and European youth levels. For most of the players, MLS minutes have been minimal. In total (per the official release notes from U.S. Soccer: “16 of 20 players have played in both MLS NEXT and MLS NEXT Pro in their careers. These 16 have appeared in over 400 MLS NEXT Pro games and half of them (eight) have gone on to play in MLS.”

The U-20 national team has improved over the past decade with the improvement of MLS. The nature of more first-team minutes at a higher quality have accelerated the development of top youth players. It is unsurprising that the team has made the quarterfinals of four straight U-20 World Cup in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2023 and three straight CONCACAF U-20 titles (2017, 2019, and 2023 – the only three titles in the program’s history).

But now we are going to see the spotlight focusing on MLS Next Pro, which is still a new level created to give the league’s younger players more minutes.

When you combine the youth of this team combined with most of the players’ current minutes coming at the MLS Next Pro level, there could be a step back with qualifying not coming as easily as it has in recent years. On the other hand, if this team succeeds, it will be a very big sign of strength that the new youth platform in MLS is on the right track.

 

Limited but strong run-up

 

There is room for optimism with this team. This team had a very late start to the cycle, with the first of just two camps taking place this past March. Historically, the U-20 cycle begins in the fall after the U-20 World Cup. This team missed the three fall windows as well as a typical January camp.

Despite the late start to the U-20 cycle, the team was impressive in its first two camps. In March, the team defeated England 3-2 while losing to Morocco. Then in June, the team travelled to South America for a 1-0 win over Argentina in Buenos Aires followed by a 1-0 win over Uruguay in Montevideo.

Without question, those are strong results for the team – all away from home. With youth soccer, consistency is rare and results can be volatile. But this team has shown an ability to be able to play and win games against historically strong programs.

 

Release issues

 

The timing of this tournament is not ideal. Historically, CONCACAF U-20 World Cup qualifying was played overlapping fall FIFA windows or in the winter when most of the region’s domestic leagues were on break. Then for the 2023 cycle, qualifying was moved to the summer but in June, when leagues were on break or there was a FIFA window.

For this 2025 cycle, it’s hard to think of a more inconvenient time to have the tournament. All relevant leagues in CONCACAF, Europe, or South America are either in session or in important times in preseason.

This makes it very difficult for the teams who rely on players from MLS, Liga MX, or Europe for players. Nsien was hit hard.

From the looks of the roster, it appears as if he was denied a significant number of players – both from MLS and from European leagues. From MLS, right back Reed Baker-Whiting stayed with Seattle, goalkeeper Gavin Beavers remained with Real Salt Lake, Matai Akinmboni was apparently not released by DC United, and Kristian Fletcher is also with DC United.

In Europe, goalkeeper Diego Kochen at Barcelona, winger Cole Campbell at Borussia Dortmund, central defender Josh Wynder, and defender Noahkai Banks all are with their clubs for preseason.

The biggest absences on this team are Cambell and Akinmboni who are not just starters but also key players who are much better than their backups. Kochen is a loss but this goalkeeping pool is one of the deepest in the history of the U.S. U-20 team.

 

Dual national losses

 

Another big takeaway from this roster is that the 2005-birth year appears to have lost many of its top players to other national teams. That is a huge problem for U.S Soccer to bleed so many of its top prospects – eventually, it will lose an important player it would like to have.

Right now from the 2005-birth year, Obed Vargas has already permanently left the U.S. program after starting at the 2023 U-20 World Cup and being a part of the U-23 team for camps this cycle. The Seattle Sounders midfielder is now part of Mexico’s set-up after completing his one-time switch with FIFA. New England Revolution center midfielder Noel Buck is with England’s U-20 team.

Finally, Esmir Bajraktarevic has been a winger with the U.S. U-19 and recently the U.S. U-23 team. He appeared to be short of making the Olympic team (playing up a cycle) but would have been a lock starter (like Vargas and possibly Buck) with this U-20 team but his absence from this roster suggests that he is likely going to play for Bosnia – who has been open with its interest in the Wisconsin-born Bajraktarevic.

Losing three U-20 starters to other national teams (while the players are all with U.S.-based clubs) is not a healthy sign.

 

Bottom line

 

The big takeaways are that the player pool is very deep. The fact that the team can deal with a wave player of  not released and three starters leaving for other national teams – but still field a team that has competed well in recent camps is impressive. Few U.S. national teams in the past could be expected to succeed missing as many players as this one has.

In addition, Nsien has done a very good job dealing with the late start to the cycle – which should have been avoided by U.S. Soccer. Previous U-20 teams have had several camps before U-20 World Cup qualifying. Having only two leaves very little time for exploring the player pool.

But overall, this team is deep and has good players. The chemistry the players have from previous youth national team camps appears to be strong.

But U-20 World Cup qualifying will likely come down to one game, as it always has. We will see what they are made of at that time.

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